Element contents
Harriet Jacobs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2025
Summary
Long celebrated for her heroic feat of endurance in escaping slavery and subsequent activism, Harriet Jacobs was also an astute political thinker. Her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a remarkable philosophical text. It is one of the most insightful reflections, both on the nature of life as a slave, and on the relationships amongst slaves and between enslaved and free people.The author places Jacobs in the republican tradition of political thought. Bringing Jacobs into dialogue with Frederick Douglass, the author argues that Jacobs's emphasis on sexual abuse and the importance of slave relationships offers us a basis for a feminist republicanism. Jacobs also emphasises the structural nature of slavery, reinforced by propaganda and social prejudices. These implicate not just slaveholders but also the free population in slavery's wrongs.
Information
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Online ISBN: 9781009318457Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 20 November 2025
References
Bailyn, Bernard. (1992). The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Bergès, Sandrine and Coffee, Alan (eds). (Forthcoming). “Recognising Women’s Contribution to the History of Republican Theorising.” In Women and Republicanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Blassingame, John. (1972). The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the American South. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 480–85.Google Scholar
Boxill, Bernard. (2018). “The Fight with Covey.” In A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass, edited by Roberts, Neil. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 61–83.Google Scholar
Braxton, Joanne. (1986). “Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: The Redefinition of the Slave Narrative Genre.” Massachusetts Review. 27 (2): 379–87.Google Scholar
Bromell, Nick. (2013). The Time Is Always Now: Black Thought and the Transformation of US Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bromell, Nick. (2021). “Harriet Jacobs: Prisoner of Hope.” In African American Political Thought: A Collected History, edited by Rogers, Melvin and Turner, Jack. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 101–22.Google Scholar
Cecelski, David. (2021). “Edenton and the Battle for White Supremacy.” https://davidcecelski.com/2021/05/07/edenton-and-the-battle-for-white-supremacy/Google Scholar
Coffee, Alan. (2013). “Mary Wollstonecraft, Freedom and the Enduring Power of Social Domination.” European Journal of Political Theory. 12 (2): 116–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coffee, Alan. (2014). “Two Spheres of Domination: Republican Theory, Social Norms and the Insufficiency of Negative Freedom.” Contemporary Political Theory. 14 (1): 45–62.Google Scholar
Coffee, Alan. (2019). “Women and the History of Republicanism”. Australasian Philosophical Review. 4 (1): 361–9.Google Scholar
Coffee, Alan. (2020). “A Radical Revolution in Thought: Frederick Douglass on the Slave’s Perspective on Republican Freedom”. In Radical Republicanism: Recovering the Tradition’s Popular Heritage, edited by Leipold, Bruno, Nabulsi, Karma and White, Stuart. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 47–64.Google Scholar
Coffee, Alan. (2023). “Mary Wollstonecraft and Wollstonecraftian Philosophy.” In The Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Moland, Lydia and Stone, Alison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 46–61.Google Scholar
Coffee, Alan. (2024). “Interpersonal and Structural Domination: Frederick Douglass and the Invisible Chains that Bind Us.” Social Theory and Practice. 50 (4): 543–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coffee, Alan. (Forthcoming). “The Radical Nature of Women’s Republicanism.” In Radical Republicanism in Early Modern Europe, edited by Becker, Anna, von Eggers Mariegaard, Nicolai, and Mulieri, Alessandro. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Douglass, Frederick. (1881). “The Color Line.” The North American Review. CXXXII: 567–77.Google Scholar
Douglass, Frederick. (1976). The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. Edited by Foner, Philip, 5 volumes. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Douglass, Frederick. (1979). The Frederick Douglass Papers. Edited by Blassingame, John and McKivigan, John, Series 1, 5 volumes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ernest, John. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the African American Slave Narrative. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fricker, Miranda. (2013). “Epistemic justice as a condition of political freedom?” Synthese. 190: 1317–1332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furstenberg, Francois. (2003). “Beyond freedom and slavery: Autonomy, virtue, and resistance in early American political discourse.” Journal of American History. 89 (4): 1295–1330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaius. (1904). Gai Institutiones or Institutes of Roman Law by Gaius. Edited by Poste, Edward. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Garfield, Deborah and Zafar, Rafia (eds). (1996). Harriet Jacobs and Incidents: New Critical Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gass, Conard. (2022). “Norcom, James, Sr.” NCpedia. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on March 8, 2025. www.ncpedia.org/biography/norcom-james-sr.Google Scholar
Gooding-Williams, Robert. (2011). In the Shadow of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gourevitch, Alex. (2015). From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth: Labor and Republican Liberty in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Green, Karen. (2019). “On the philosophical significance of eighteenth-century ‘Republicans’”. Australasian Philosophical Review. 3 (4): 371–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, John. (2024). The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery. Edited by Schroeder, Jonathan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Harriet. (2008). The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers. Edited by Yellin, Jean, Thomas, Joseph, Culkin, Kate, and Korb, Scott. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Harriet. (2019). Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Second Norton Critical Edition. Edited by Foster, Frances Smith and Yarborough, Richard. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Jagmohan, Desmond. (2022). “Peculiar Property: Harriet Jacobs on the Nature of Slavery.” Journal of Politics. 84 (2): 669–681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Karen. (2002). “The Politics of Credibility.” In A Mind of One’s Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity, edited by Antony, Louise and Witt, Charlotte. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 152–76.Google Scholar
Kirkland, Frank. (2015). “Is an Existential Reading of the Fight with Covey Sufficient to Explain Frederick Douglass’s Critique of Slavery?.” Critical Philosophy of Race. 3 (1): 124–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, Margaret. (2005). “Frederick Douglass’s Master-Slave Dialectic.” The Journal of Politics. 67 (2): 497–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, John Wesley. (1917). Early History of the North Carolina Medical Society. North Carolina: s.n.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. (1853). “The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery.” New York Daily Tribune, February 9.Google Scholar
Milton, John. (1991). Political Writings. Edited by Dzelzainis, Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parramore, Thomas. (1990). “Harriet Jacobs, James Norcom, and the Defense of Hierarchy.” Carolina Comments. XXXVIII (3): 82–9.Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip. (1997). Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Picquet, Louisa and Mattison, Hiram. (1861). Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life. New York: The Author.Google Scholar
Price, Richard. (1991). Political Writings. Edited by Thomas, D. O.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rogers, Melvin. (2023). The Darkened Light of Faith. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. (2025). Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smyth, William. (1985). “O Death, where is Thy Sting?: Reverend Francis J. Grimké’s Eulogy for Harriet A. Jacobs.” Journal of Negro History. 70 (1/2): 35–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spillers, Hortense. (1987). “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book.” Diacritics. 17 (2): 64–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Julia Gardiner. (1853). “To the Duchess of Sutherland and the Ladies of England.” New York Herald, January 28.Google Scholar
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. (1934). History of wages in the United States from colonial times to 1928 (Bulletin No. 604). U.S. Government Printing Office. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/4054Google Scholar
Yellin, Jean. (1981). “Written by Herself: Harriet Jacobs’ Slave Narrative.” American Literature. 53 (3): 479–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.0 A
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
The PDF of this Element
conforms to version 2.0 of the
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG), ensuring core accessibility principles are addressed and meets the basic
(A)
level of WCAG compliance, addressing essential accessibility barriers.
Content Navigation
Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Reading Order & Textual Equivalents
Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
Structural and Technical Features
ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.